The present invention relates to cooling towers and, more particularly, to modules capable of being combined to form a modular counterflow cooling tower.
One use for cooling towers is to transfer heat from a liquid to the air. In essence, the liquid is cooled. Typically, the liquid has acquired heat in an industrial process or in an air conditioning or other commercial operation, and heat is required to be removed from the liquid so it can reenter the process to again absorb heat. In a counterflow cooling tower, the liquid to be cooled is usually water and is sprayed downwardly from a header onto fill sheets. The fill sheets are relatively closely packed sheets of plastic utilized to spread the water flow over their surface. Air is drawn upwardly past the fill sheets usually by a fan located above the spray header. The upward flow of air and downward flow of liquid results in the counterflow designation of the cooling tower. The liquid is cooled by the passage of air across the fill sheets, and the cooled liquid falls into a collection basin from which it is recycled.
One problem with such cooling towers is the ability to match the cooling capacity of a factory built cooling tower to the commercial process needs. Several sizes for the cooling towers are necessary to meet various needs, with the only ready option being the ability to use multiples of a particular size cooling tower unit to meet such needs.
Another problem in such arrangements is the physical size of cooling towers. Construction locations are frequently in downtown urban settings that require the delivery of all construction elements by semi-trailer truck. Size limitations on truck shipmentsdictates a maximum size of container or, in this case, cooling tower, that can be readily shipped. This problem can be summarized by saying that it is difficult to supply the various cooling tower capacities that may be required without supplying many different sized complete cooling towers or two or more of tha available size cooling towers, and in any event duplicating many parts such as fans and pumps, and the like.